Ease into fall with these tea party-themed cocktails

Savor the final days of summer and get ready for sweater weather with these gin-forward sips

Fall may be nearly upon us, with promises of cooler weather, but as these final days of summer drag on, it’s not quite time to start sipping hot toddies and mulled, hard ciders. Instead, an adult twist on the afternoon tea party is a refreshing way to relax during a cooling—yet continuous—heatwave.

Tea can be incorporated into cocktails in a variety of ways, from cold steeping tea bags into vodka to substituting tea for water in a simple syrup mixture. When it comes to choosing liquors to build cocktails with, San Diego has some incredible local distilleries to draw inspiration from.

This collection of garden tea party-themed cocktails features spirits from You & Yours Distilling Co., a distillery and tasting room located downtown in the East Village. Founded by Laura Johnson in 2017, You & Yours makes a selection of canned cocktails, but its marquee items are the three primary spirits.

The distillery offers a clean yet subtly sweet Y&Y Vodka with a background of apple and pear; a floral and citrus-forward Sunday Gin made with grapefruit and Valencia orange peel, rose hips, coriander and juniper; and a London Dry Gin that has a heavy juniper flavor with notes of whole cloves.

This article first published in San Diego Magazine on Sept. 16, 2022. To read the rest of this article with four, tea-themed cocktail recipes, visit San Diego Magazine.